When scanned nutrition values slide onto the wrong rows
Rebuild row alignment using named anchors and original image evidence, rather than rearranging numbers by intuition.
A flattened nutrition table can leave the right numbers beside the wrong nutrients. If the extraction looks misaligned, rebuild the row associations from the photograph. Never rearrange amounts merely because one arrangement resembles a familiar food.
Start with the full nutrient phrase
Read each row from its left edge to its final unit or percentage. Keep indentation and words such as total or includes in your transcription. They help distinguish a main category from a subordinate line. The FDA label overview identifies the principal nutrient categories on a US panel.
Choose two clearly readable anchor rows above and below the questionable area. Copy those rows first, then work through the intervening lines one at a time. Keep every amount attached to the row you can actually see, even if the result surprises you.
Build an alignment ledger
Imagine a fictional package listing total fat 8 g, saturated fat 2 g, total carbohydrate 20 g and dietary fiber 3 g. An extraction might omit the saturated-fat label and shift the remaining amounts upward. Your ledger should have separate columns for printed row name, extracted pairing and verified pairing.
For example, the extracted pairing dietary fiber 20 g is corrected only after the photograph shows that 20 g belongs to total carbohydrate. The corrected fiber amount is 3 g because that row is readable, not because 3 g seems more likely.
Avoid a mechanical one-row shift
Do not move every value down one line automatically. A skipped label, wrapped phrase or extra percentage can cause a local error while later rows remain correctly aligned. Verify each affected cell and stop changing rows once the source and extraction agree.
Keep the serving heading visible during this process. Accurate rows with a mistaken serving basis still produce the wrong comparison. If the photograph has a fold across one nutrient, mark only that row unresolved and preserve the rows you can verify.
After repairing the table, calculate a result from one verified row. If the fictional 40 g serving contains 3 g fiber, its concentration is 3 ÷ 40 × 100 = 7.5 g per 100 g. Record the formula beside the verified row identifier. Save the original extraction and a short list of corrected pairings so another reader can audit the repair without repeating the entire capture.